UMass Scientist Recognized as 2010 Cottrell Scholar for Nanotechnology Research

Published on December 29, 2010 at 4:00 AM

Jennifer L. Ross, a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been named a 2010 Cottrell Scholar, one of the most prestigious fellowships for early career faculty in the sciences.

Given by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement ( RCSA ) in Arizona, the awards recognize leaders in integrating science teaching and research at leading U.S. research universities. They also represent admission to an exclusive group of scholars--now about 240 in total--who have been singled out for leadership in combining teaching and research: a pressing priority for a nation that seeks to perpetuate its history of scientific preeminence in the face of ever-increasing global competition.

Ross was chosen on the basis of her peer-reviewed research proposal, "Studies of Microtubule Intracellular Highways: Building Bridges between Physics and Biology." According to RCSA, this year’s selection was very competitive, with only 12 percent of proposals receiving funding.

The honor carries an award of $75,000 to support her research and teaching. Ross and the other 10 Cottrell Scholars will be publicly recognized in the journal Science.

Ross’ Cottrell project involves research on single molecule imaging of microtubule motor proteins.

"These nano-scale proteins shuttle materials and organelles throughout all your body’s cells," says Ross. "These active motility processes are most important in very long cells--like nerve cells--where goods and materials made or recycled in the cell body need to be transported a long way ( up to 1 meter in nerves connecting your toes to your spine ) to be used at the end of the axon. Defects in transport are related to neuromuscular diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. We are interested in dissecting how nano-scale traffic jams could stop transport inside cells. We study these motors one at a time using fluorescence microscopy that can see single proteins."

Along with providing funding for her research, the Cottrell Award will support an interdisciplinary optics course created by Ross.

"Optics is a unifying field of physics that affects biologists, engineers and chemists," she says. "My course is designed to give students a basic understanding of optics design and construction principles, so that they can take these skills to their own research. The course has an extensive laboratory section where groups of students design and build an optics microscope out of component optics pieces. The Cottrell Award will enable me to purchase two more experimental set-ups so that more students can take the class."